I think so. It helped me with my pathetic benching.

My old trainer had me doing ~50% of my 1RM for speed reps a couple times. I dont have a lot of experience with that, but I'm sure there's validity to it. The guy benches 475 @ 198bw.

lol bench imo

You can get strong at bench without doing any speed work. I'm sure they help though and I may incorporate them in my intensity days if I don't feel like benching and just want to get it over with

Eta: when my bench got good, I didn't do much speed benching. Friend of mine does 295 for ~10 or so and prob never heard of speed benching. He can't squat that tho lol

I thought incorporating dynamic benching, especially with bands, helped my bench a lot. Probably not necessary for beginners, but if you're having trouble progressing I would recommend trying some DE work for sure. I also like variations that focus on the lockout portion of the lift like floor presses and board presses, basically WSBB templates.

I just read something that makes complete sense to me based on my experience:
http://www.robertsontrainingsystems....-up-your-bench

You might need to subscribe (receive emails ~ once a week or so) in order to have access to that page.

Basically what the article says is, there's an excellent chance that you should be pulling more - doing rows, pullups, all kinds of back stuff, along with lots of small muscle shoulder stuff like I's T's & Y's to improve your bench press.

This is what I did for ~4 months recently - no bench presses, some dumbell bench presses, and lots of pulling & small shoulder muscle work. 2 months after starting benching again, my 1 RM has gone up 26 lbs from where it was 6 months ago. The reason is clear now - my upper back and scapular area got a lot stronger and more stable.

Yeah I've read that before as well somewhere (Tate?) and it definitely makes sense.

In my particular case that sounds a bit weird, since I've had rows and chins in my routine for a long time. Perhaps I'll exchange the chins for the pull-ups for a while though.

And really, the I's and T's and stuff - I can't see that improving strength? He does say it's primarily for people with scapular instability (how do you even know if you are?) though.

I get where he's coming from when he says start with pulling, so I'll try that. My chins are always lower in the gym than when I do them at home, mostly due to pressing just before.


Considering adding DE bench work on one of my main days since I have trouble cutting either paused (need the work from the bottom) or close-grip (need triceps work too prolly).

As far as scapular instability - I wasnt necessary weak back there before, and didnt think that area had much to do with my bench before. The feeling I have now when I bench, its hard to describe it, but my scapular area feels very stable and very strong when I bench now. Its not that it felt weak or unstable before, but the feeling now is noticeably better. When I read that article, it was like a light bulb went off in my head - that's what he's been having me do, and I can see why clearly now.

I was skimming your log and see that you're doing either barbell rows or chins (one of these per workout), plus some DLs. Maybe it'd be a good idea to add another few sets of pulling (maybe a different exercise) per workout?

Good article!

I have to admit, I got more of a light bulb from reading his other article on bench setup...

I don't think it's a good idea to add even more work at this stage, I'm eating at a 25% deficit and I've already added an extra day. More work seems like it would lead to bigger recovery issues, plus questionable benefit. If you disagree I'd like to hear why though.

Maximum life tilt today - my new gym is apparently closed on saturdays for two more weeks


Open on Sundays 4-8 pm, but tomorrow my parents invited me to dinner at an earlier time than usual...at 4 pm.

Poker rant:

I dont disagree with that. I hadnt considered the fact that you are eating at a deficit.

I've never lifted heavy for any significant length of time while eating at a deficit, so I have no advice as far as that goes.

and poker is rigged

I think I'll stay with my current programming for now, but I'm looking forward to mixing in more stuff when I'm done dieting. I think I'll run TM for a bit to up my strength then go to 5/3/1 or something, we'll see.

TM is volume-recovery-intensity, what is 5/3/1?

Basically 1 main exercise (squat, press, DL, bench I think) 3/weekly + assistance for that exercise. Programming is a bit more complex and goes in waves. I think it would be fun to experiment a bit with different exercises + not squat 3/week, those mofos just kill me.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=112382761

Seems complex! Will check it out.

fwiw, I've been squatting once a week for a while and I've been pretty consistently adding weight. If you're doing enough volume and/or intensity once a week, that is all the frequency you need.

I think the 3X per week is good for beginners because they dont have the ability to do it as intensely as more experienced lifters. Once you get better at pushing yourself to the limit, you need more time to recover.

same cha,

i felt like i was over training squatting heavy 2/3x a week at this was only at 75kg. Im now progressing nicely with once a week, currently squatting 95kg.

Deriving the conclusions in PPST independently by trial and error. Sick.

Always nice to progress compared to stalling. May I ask what your age/size is and how much you progress on a weekly basis?

I played my first game in over a year yesterday (with $50 free promotion money) and lost it all in one game of heads up pretty much trying some elaborate out of position float and pretend value bet after check/check turn and got snapped with 2nd pair. Actually I did this twice lol. Yep I suck, level myself in life and poker. I'm glad i lost in a way as I went full degen for over a year for this god forsaken game. Next time I'm gonna post in LC thread and one of you punks can take my monies I think.

Any luck with teh EC Soulman?

erm,

I'm 5"11, 21yo, 78kg. I honestly dont progress much on a weekly basis at the moment, I often get stuck on a weight for a week or two. Im in the gym for vanity reasons at the minute, where as before it was to aid MMA (but I cant do that at the minute because I have some important medicals coming up soonish and dont wanna get injured.). So I really dont keep much of a track at the minute, although I have made nice steady progress, hopefully im squatting 120kg by the end of the year.

Hmm ok. I find a bit weird though that you would stall SS-squats at such a relatively low weight (compared to your size and age), unless of course, your recovery is severely lacking...

Won't be me, don't play HU*

Nah gonna skip the EC for now. If I need it at the end I have enough for that.

well, its not really trial & error.

I've been working out and reading about lifting for > 20 years. I originally got the idea of doing super intense, heavy workouts with longer rest periods from reading a lot of stuff by Dorian Yates and others who had similar ideas about lifting. It worked for me ~15 years ago, and its been working again recently, now that I've got back into decent shape.

Its been a lot of reading, a lot of talking to other knowledgeable people, a lot of working out, and getting to know how my body reacts to different things over many years. fwiw I'm 45 yrs old, 5'10" and ~220-225 lbs. I could probably write all day about this, but I dont want to hog SM's log. Please see my log for progress.